GOLD (Chris Cleave) - July 12/12

Ah, okay. Now this I liked. Cleave tells the relatively simple story of two friends competing against each other and dwells on their problematic personal lives (Kate must deal with a cancer-afflicted child while Zoe attempts to cope with her tragic past). Cleave's tendency to emphasize flashbacks admittedly does wreak havoc on the book's momentum, but the whole thing is consistently readable and I even choked up a couple of times. *** out of ****